Thrasher has power to keep Locke in FAMU-FSU deanship for as long as he wants

Back when Elmira Mangum agreed to jointly appoint Bruce Locke as the interim dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering (COE), she also indirectly gave John Thrasher the power to keep him that position for as long as he wants.

Locke is a professor with tenure at FSU and was an FSU associate provost when Mangum gave her approval for his joint appointment to the COE interim deanship. He is now a finalist for the permanent COE deanship.

If Thrasher wants Locke to become permanent dean and Mangum says “no,” then Locke will just stay on in the interim deanship on an indefinite basis.

Rattler Nation has been writing about this obvious problem for months.

A July 7, 2015 editorial in Rattler Nation said that “FSU can make an extension of the ‘interim deanship’ happen without FAMU’s approval. The two universities must make a joint decision on the appointment of a dean, so Thrasher could decline to let a new dean be selected. Locke will be in charge of hiring faculty members at the COE until FSU comes to an agreement with FAMU on who the new dean will be. That means the 'interim deanship' could go on for months or even years.”

The Mangum administration fired back with a press release on July 10, 2015 that claimed: “The dean reports directly to the provosts of FAMU and FSU. Thus, FSU cannot unilaterally decide that an extension of the 'interim' deanship is needed as has been reported in some publications and online.”

But now the situation that Rattler Nation said might happen is now here. The faculty line for the permanent deanship has been at FAMU since August 1, 2015. The presidents of FAMU and FSU must both give their approval in order for a permanent dean to be jointly appointed to that line. If Thrasher declines to give his okay on a joint appointment, then the deanship line at FAMU will just remain vacant. FAMU cannot make the call on when the “interim” dean must leave office because that individual is an employee of FSU. 

Mangum still hasn't explained why an engineering professor with tenure at FAMU wasn't chosen for the interim deanship even though the university has a number of faculty members who are fully qualified for the job. Thrasher needed Mangum’s agreement for Locke to be jointly appointed as the interim dean.

FSU has had both the interim deanship and the $12.9M that the legislature appropriated for the COE since August 1, 2015.

FAMU was in control of the core operating budget for the COE from 1987 until 2014. But in 2015 the new Joint College of Engineering Governance Council started to claim that it is in charge of the COE budget. Back at a May 20 meeting, the Joint Council unanimously voted to move the $12.9M COE core operating budget from FAMU to FSU.

All FAMU has now is a vacant faculty line that is designated for the permanent dean but can’t be filled until Thrasher gives his approval for that individual to be jointly appointed.